Epilogue – Bargains Struck

Two old friends sat in a restaurant, lighted by candles, surrounded by darkness and shadows. They contemplated the peaceful dinner ambience as the news of war and death echoed in the back of their minds.

Madam Flora Chanel leaned back in the chair and stared at Albus Dumbledore in surprise.

"She never said a word in all of her reports, Albus." The tiny dark woman was thoughtful. "Are you sure?"

"Perfectly. He has asked her to marry him once the war is over." Albus answered and took a bite of his steak.

"She agreed?" Flora leaned forward again, calculations dancing in her eyes.

"So he says, and he is not prone to lying." Flora chuckled, for she knew what Albus meant.

"I am…surprised. She has never been the type."

"Neither has he." Albus returned with a look close to wonderment. "I wish you could have seen them together; it was amazing." Albus met Flora's eyes and she sighed.

"I need her Albus, now more than ever."

"He needs her too."

"I have to think of the greater good."

"He is the only spy we have in the inner circle. Keeping him alive and sane is for the greater good."

"You just want a Defense teacher." Flora chuckled softly.

"No, I just want to end this war. I just want to bring Tom down and have Harry survive it, have Severus sane at the end of it and my children not scarred and broken." They stared at each other for a very long time.

Flora weighed the worth of Kathryn as an analyst versus the boy-who-lived and the prophecy. She remembered the bloody holocaust of Grindelwald's defeat. She remembered the battlefields and she remembered the camps, where human beings were sucked dry and fed into the spells of Dark Wizards.

She remembered Clara, who had loved Albus Dumbledore so much she had driven herself to madness and death for him and she knew that Albus was seeing a similar fate for this young man and others like him. She had wished that she could have saved Clara; now she had a chance to save someone else.

"I will release her to you, but you must bind her to the Order." She knew full well what Kathryn was capable of; after all she had trained her to it. Albus looked startled.

"We don't bind our people that way." Albus replied, for he had never liked the way Flora kept her agents leashed.

"She isn't like your people. I trained her to be utterly ruthless, to kill without thought or mercy. I have trained her in every art of death and murder known to man." Flora was deliberately brutal.

Albus could be ruthless when he had to be, but he was also a gentle soul. Flora had seen too much to be anything other than coldly practical.

"It is the only way I will release her to you. She is too dangerous a weapon to leave unbound." Flora still remembered the autopsy reports from Leningrad and the cold pride in Kathryn's eyes. There had been no remorse, only cold hatred. She would not free that on an unsuspecting England.

"Very well, Flora." Albus conceded, his desire to secure Kathryn for Severus over-riding his distaste of the bindings. He would bind her far more loosely than Flora did though. He hated to interfere with the free will of another sentient being.

"When summer is over I will send her back to you; for now I need her to analyze the data we have been receiving."

"Severus will be very happy."

"No. Tell no one. I will send her back in August, you will take her to the Order's headquarters, I will loose her bindings and you will bind her to the Order, then you may tell people she has come back." Flora shook her head at Albus' protests. "I cannot risk that her travel to England will be compromised. I'm sticking my neck out for you, Albus. I will have many questions to answer about this. I have to find a way to release her and cover her past with us and get her there."

"I understand." Albus looked at Flora and wondered where the laughing girl he had known in the 20's had gone. He remembered her in flapper attire, head thrown back in joy as she danced with wild abandon. Grindelwald had destroyed so many lives and even from the grave his cold hands still touched them all.

"She is government property Albus; not an employee, but an investment." Flora's frown was full of distaste for her own words.

"I will take good care of her."

"You had better, Albus. I love her like a daughter."